Eating-disorder symptoms and syndromes in a sample of urban-dwelling Canadian women: contributions toward a population health perspective.
OBJECTIVE
We estimated the prevalence of eating disorders and maladaptive eating behaviors in a population-based sample and examined the association of maladaptive eating with self-rated physical and mental health.


METHODS
A sample of 1,501 women (mean age = 31.2 years, SD = 6.2) were recruited using random-digit dialing to participate in a 20-min telephone interview about eating behaviors.


RESULTS
Weighted frequency analysis showed the prevalence of frequent binge-eating to be 4.1%, that of regular purging to be 1.1%, and that of frequent compensation to be 8.7%. Although we found none of the women to meet full criteria for anorexia nervosa, 0.6% met criteria for bulimia nervosa, 3.8% provisional criteria for binge eating disorder, and 0.6% criteria for a newly proposed entity, purging disorder. As many as 14.9% fell into a residual category representing subthreshold, but potentially problematic variants of eating disturbances. Logistic regression analyses showed that clinical-level maladaptive eating attitudes and behaviors predicted self-rated physical- and mental-health problems after sociodemographic factors were controlled.


CONCLUSIONS
This population-based survey provides prevalence estimates of BN, BED, and purging disorder that are compatible with those of recent epidemiological studies and shows that maladaptive eating attitudes and behaviors represent a substantial population burden.
Gauvin
Lise
L
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Universite' de Montréal, Quebec, Canada. lise.gauvin.2@umontreal.ca
Steiger
Howard
H
Brodeur
Jean-Marc
JM
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001835:Body Weight; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D015444:Exercise; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012917:Social Adjustment; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*